Following is our 1996 Year-End Report on the situation of Filipino migrants. We
hope it will provide you an update that would inspire you
to continue supporting Filipino migrants and Kakammpi's
work. This early, signs foretell continuing abuses against
Filipino migrants and we need all the support we can get.
We're looking forward to working with you this new year.

Irynn Abano

The hanging of Flor Contemplacion in Singapore in March
1995 shocked the nation and reminded every Filipino about
the harsh consequences of working overseas. Yet in 1996,
Filipinos continue to trek abroad in droves at the rate of
nearly 1,800 departures everyday. The Contemplacion
incident also prompted the Philippine government to
legislate corrective measures in an attempt to cover for
the pitfalls of its aggressive labor export program. The
result was a Magna Carta for overseas Filipino that was
signed into law in June 1995. The muchvaunted law,
however, has failed so far in curtailing abuses committed
against Filipino migrant workers. They remain virtually
unprotected and their basic rights systematically violated
with impunity in most countries that play host to Filipino
workers. During the past year, countless among them
continue to experience all sorts of abuses and
exploitation, especially women migrants.

OCW Deployments

From January to July 1996, official government
statistics placed the number of OCW (Overseas Contract
Worker) deployments at 323,523. At this rate, it is
estimated that by the end of 1996, nearly 600,000
Filipinos would have left the country for overseas
contract work. This figure, while slightly lower than the
previous year's deployment of 654,022, indicates a
continuing pattern of massive labor outmigration of
Filipinos in search of alternatives to joblessness and
poverty at home.

The Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, remained as
the top destination of Filipino OCWs, representing about
50% of annual overseas placement. Other major destinations
include Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei,
Saipan and Taiwan. Since the late 1980s, deployment of
Filipino workers to laborshort East Asia and the ASEAN
countries have consistently increased in absolute terms
and relative to total annual deployments. Rapid economic
expansion and rising household incomes particularly in
growth centers of the region have increased the demand for
Filipino factory and service workers.

While the 1996 deployment figure indicates a 10%
decline in overseas placement, Kakammpi estimates that
actual departures may have gone up due to the swelling
ranks of undocumented workers who leave the country to
work as "illegal" aliens. This trend is partly
in reaction to the increasingly restrictive immigration
policies imposed by countries that play host to Filipino
migrants. In certain countries such as France, Italy,
Jordan and Singapore, undocumented workers represent some
50% to 90% of Filipinos in those countries.

As in previous years, landbased workers represent
75% of total deployments for 1996. The other 25% comprised
seabased workers, indicating that one in every four
Filipino OCWs is a sailor. Women migrants now constitute
about half of annual landbased deployments. Kakammpi,
however, estimates that actual female departures may be
over 50% since the bulk of undocumented workers are women
employed as domestic helpers and entertainers. Independent
estimates placed the number of women departures at 60% of
total overseas placement.

Kakammpi also noted that in the last few years, new
forms of labor migration have been introduced as expedient
alternatives to overseas contract employment. In several
Asian countries such as South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan,
Filipinos are brought in to work as trainees for a
nonrenewable term of usually six months. Interviews
done by Kakammpi among its members reveal that this scheme
has become popular among foreign job seekers who are,
likewise, offered to become local recruiters prior to
departure and upon return.

In Europe, the practice of bringing in Filipinos under
a cultural exchange program (called Au Pair) has become
widespread. The Au Pair system allows Filipinos to work
and learn the culture of the host country, get free board
and lodging, and receive an allowance. In return, the
grantee performs babysitting and light housework for
the host family. In reality, this program facilitated the
recruitment of Filipinos to work as domestic helpers of
the host families. Even the Department of Foreign Affairs
admitted that the Au Pair Program has been abused by local
recruiters to lure prospective maids to get jobs abroad.
After program completion, the grantee usually stays on to
work as the domestic helper of the host family.

The exodus of Filipinos for overseas work is expected
to continue for some time due to continuing job scarcity,
low wages and poverty at home. For the last two decades,
overseas placement has outpaced new job generation in the
country. In 1995, Kakammpi estimated the country's job
scarcity ratio at 69% of the total labor force. While the
government reported a decline in unemployment rate for
1996, the improvement is too marginal to generate any
significant dent in the employment situation.

Bailing out the Philippine Economy

The Philippine government reported an impressive 6.8%
growth in Gross National Product (GNP) for 1996. Trade,
investments, production and foreign reserves registered
increments over the previous year's performance. But
nothing in the country's balance sheet is perhaps as
impressive as the income remitted by overseas Filipinos.
In 1996, the country's 4.2 million overseas Filipinos
remitted $7 billion, a significant increase of 43% over
1995's figure of $4.9 billion. According to Labor
Secretary Leonides Quisumbing, the actual amount can reach
as much as $14 billion if income remitted through
unofficial or nonbank channels is included.

Economists have warned against getting overly excited
about the 6.8% GNP growth rate, arguing that a large chunk
of this growth is accounted for by OCW remittances. Even
the World Bank has cautioned developing countries
including the Philippines not to depend on the inflow of
salary remittances and foreign investments to sustain the
growth momentum.

For the last several years, income remittances of
overseas Filipinos have buoyed up the Philippine economy.
It has been the country's top dollar earner since the
early 1980s. OCW remittances have outpaced exports by 15
percentage points in the last four years. This is enough
to close the widening trade gap which in 1996 has swelled
to $10 billion.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) reported that in
1995, 16% of the country's households depend on overseas
remittances for at least 30% of their annual income. For
1996, the same agency revealed an increase in the income
of households which partly or wholly rely on OCW
remittances.

Continuing Tales of Woes and Tragedies

And while the Philippine economy relished the generous
inflow of dollar incomes from its overseas workers, the
nation continued to mourn its dead and abused citizens
abroad. Last year was another bad year for Filipino OCWs.

Everyday, at least two OCWs return to the country in a
box. Excluding undocumented workers, this translates to
700 lives lost annually. In November last year, a
Congressional hearing was convened to inquire into the
mysterious deaths of Filipinos working abroad. In that
hearing, it was revealed that in 1996 alone, at least 150
deaths occurred under suspicious circumstances. During the
same year, Kakammpi monitored some 35 mysterious deaths of
Filipino OCWs. Of these, 30 were women migrants.

Documented cases describe similar and equally appalling
stories of violence and deaths. These cases are now mere
statistics in a list that gets longer every year. To date,
most of these cases have remained unresolved. The families
of victims are rendered helpless especially because of the
apathetic attitude of government officials who regard
these cases as embarrassing incidents that unnecessarily
complicate their stately diplomatic functions.

Even today, thousands of Filipinos are languishing in
jails abroad for various offenses. As of December 1995,
the media reported at least 2,173 OCWs serving prison
terms in such countries as Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates, Israel, Pakistan, Brunei, Malaysia, Cambodia,
Singapore, China, Taiwan and the United States. Among them
were 108 Filipinos awaiting execution for crimes which
many of them claimed as fabricated charges, while others
complained of unfair trial or unjust punishments for
ordinary offenses.

Throughout the past year, media reports and NGO
documentation chronicled a continuing pattern of
widespread abuses committed against Filipinos in most
countries of destination. During the past ten years, an
average of 12,276 complaints were processed every year by
the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). The
most common among these complaints were maltreatment,
contract violation or substitution, nonpayment of
salaries, underpayment, physical abuse, rape, sexual
assault and sex trafficking.

Based on partial reports, the situation could have
worsened in 1996 compared to previous years. Kanlungan
Center Foundation, for example, reported that in the first
five months of 1996, some 94,136 Filipino overseas workers
were reportedly in serious trouble, more than double the
40,971 monitored in all previous years. OWWA, on the other
hand, reported that in the Autonomous Region of Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM), reported welfare cases of abuses
increased to 25 cases per month from the previous year's
5.8 per month. Reported cases provide only a partial
picture of the actual extent of abuses experienced by
Filipinos abroad. Most victims do not bother to report at
all for lack of interest believing that nothing can come
out of it, or for fear of reprisal or public exposure of
the case. Others fail to report or file legal cases for
lack of documentation or lack of knowledge on possible
legal recourse. A survey done by Kakammpi among its
members indicate that nearly 75% of the respondent
migrants have experienced abuse, harassment or contract
violations, but only less than 5% actually reported their
case and only 2% filed cases and pursued their legal
claims.

Philippine Overseas Migration in
Crisis

In 1975, then President Marcos embarked on an
aggressive labor export program as a temporary measure to
reduce unemployment and prop up the sagging economy. The
program which was meant to be temporary, became a
permanent one as successive governments after Marcos
pursued the same labor export policy. The Ramos
Administration even elevated the program as one of the
pillars of its quest for NIChood status by the year 2000.
After more than two decades of massive labor export
implemented without corresponding protection measures and
reentry program, Philippine overseas migration faces a
serious crisis. The crisis situation is best depicted by
the dramatic rise of violent deaths, sexual abuse,
torture, unjustified detention, mental breakdown, family
separation and abandonment, and youth delinquency among
migrants and their families.

It is now apparent that the government had lost control
of the situation. Today, it speaks of privatizing the
whole migration industry, arguing that labor movements
across nations can be better regulated according to their
supply and demand situations. But while world leaders
triumphantly speak of liberalization and free trade,
laborimporting countries are imposing even more rigid
protective barriers against the entry and continued stay
of foreign workers.

Today, the estimated 4.2 million Filipinos abroad face
an uncertain future. While they continue to work under
harsh and risky environments without adequate safeguards,
they are increasingly threatened with job insecurity and
stiff immigration policies. And the prospect of decent
employment back home remains as elusive as before.